Just saw this, looks very good. There are parts where he's gliding through the city, will this have more of a sandbox approach? That would be a major departure from the first game, not necessarily bad though.

They're humans. They're mortal. Batman's a mortal guy, but he's a total badass, so we've got to make sure that all of a sudden someone like Riddler doesn't just develop superhuman strength because it makes gameplay sense. No. Riddler is a smart guy but he's not a powerhouse, and so the combat between Batman and Riddler exists on the intellectual level.

This line alone pretty much sold me on the game. Arkham Asylum was good, but the boss fights were pretty lousy. Too videogame-ish and inappropriate for the characters. God I hope they actually pull this off this time around.

I enjoyed Arkham Asylum but at times I felt the game was simply too easy. I felt like I was so much stronger than pretty much everyone, and especially when sneaking up on enemies or using special attacks they didn't stand a chance. Still, all in all it was a very enjoyable game, but I would really like it if the new one were a tad less linear and/or perhaps forced me to use different approaches in defeating enemies. I did like the special attacks but I really seldom felt I needed to use them.

I just canceled my Batman: Arkham City preorder. I think the game looks fantastic, but I'm sick of all the BS surrounding it: Tons of frivolous DLC, every retailer with their own special preorder bonuses, and now download codes for single player content.

You just know that a year from now (heck, maybe even sooner) they will release a new edition that actually includes all the content. Why buy it now like a sucker?

Well the only necessary DLC actually comes with the game so I guess that's why'd you buy it?

I think it's silly to do this when they released all the Catwoman stuff well before any type of announcement of this pass. Really if they announced the pass and then showed the trailer that would have been much better, it would have shown people a reason to buy it new instead of making people sour that they couldn't rent it because they are loosing out on something that was essentially advertised as in the game. Regardless, it might not be a Day 1 purchase for me as I live kind of far from any game store but it will be first week for sure.

To clarify, the thing I'm the most upset about is all the retailer-specific preorder bonuses. It has really gotten out of hand and I don't want to support that kind of thing. This extra crap is just the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak.